[Bungleau]

Fenris,

First off, welcome to the boards. May your adventures in the Gael Serran prove the topic of many a late-night discussion at the Boogre Bar.

Second, to respond to your questions...

1. That red square means the item is damaged beyond 5% (I think; could be 10%). You will want to either repair it (if a party member can do that) or take it to a smithy and have the smith repair it. If it goes to 100% damaged, I believe it breaks and is gone forever. I haven't had that happen to me, but I recall someone losing a special sword because of that.

2. Two things: spending skill points on vine skill, and using books to learn spells. Possibly a third about who can cast spells.

You can spend skill points on spells, but I prefer to simply train the spell schools at the guilds. That way, one level = one skill level trained, while one skill point spent <> one skill level trained. IOW, you can train in a skill at the guild far faster than you can learn it on your own. When you gain a level, you gain mana points and can choose a spell to learn. You gain more mana in the school whose spell you learned. If you learn via a book, you don't get that extra boost.

And once you've learned a spell, you can always cast it, no matter what your class is or what level it is. I know the book says otherwise; the book's wrong on that one.

2a. Apply skill points to things you can't train in the guilds, such as sorcery, gallantry, and so on. At every level, do your best to train in every guild. Whether you train stats, spells, weaponry, or miscellaneous is up to you; I keep spellcasters on their spells and let others go to swords and daggers after they've hit any other useful levels.

3. You can learn skills up to one-half of your skill level in that school if you're a non-native caster. Sorcery only factors in to your casting ability and effectiveness -- will you succeed in casting, and how powerful will the spell be? The book is a trifle misleading and incorrect.